Five Shadows

Looking forward to a new year of sewing, and having come across many interesting challenges on the web, I’ve decided to sign up for two. Here is my plan, I’ve signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge offered by Sew Cal Gal. I took a free motion quilting class at a local quilt shop this past year, and have just not played/practiced around with it enough to feel comfortable with FMQ. This challenge should help. There will be 12 experts giving free advice during the year. One FMQer per month. And there is a Facebook page with loads of advice and encouragement.

Then the Color Palette Challenge caught my eye, offered by Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber and Judy of Patchwork Times. But would I really follow through with two different challenges, I wondered? Vicki suggested that the two could be combined. The more I’ve thought about it, I believe Vicki is right. I could use her color palette to create a mini quilt each month and then use the encouragement to FMQ that piece.

Then I remembered a Block of the Month pattern series I bought several years ago. Baskets & Blooms by Joined at the Hip (2000!) And now my thought is I’ll create the BOM using Vicki’s color palette and practice the FMQ in the background of those blocks.

Here’s to a Happy New Year with new sewing experiences!